The Battle of Berezina was the final battle of the French emperor Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia, occurring in November 1812 as the Grande Armee attempted to cross the Berezina River at Borisov (Barysaw).
Following the devastating Battle of Krasnoi, Napoleon planned to cross the Berezina River in order to join up with Karl Philip Schwarzenberg's Austrian army at Minsk. However, Peter Wittgenstein's Russian army moved to block Napoleon's battered force. On 21 November, the Russians captured the French garrison at Borisov, including the bridge over the Berezina, which they destroyed on 23 November. As Wittgenstein descended on Napoleon's army from the north with 30,000 troops, Pavel Chichagov approached from the west with 35,000 troops and Mikhail Miloradovich and his 32,000 troops approached from the east.
On 26 November, Napoleon's army began its crossing of the Berezina, building bridges to enable a retreat. Nicolas Oudinot's 7,000 troops established a defensive position to protect against Russian focres to the south, repelling Yefim Chaplits' attacks. By 27 November, Napoleon and his Imperial Guard had escaped across the river. Louis-Nicolas Davout and Eugene de Beauharnais' corps were also able to escape before the day ended, and Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin's IX Corps was given the order to defend against the approach of Wittgenstein. The Russians overwhelmed Louis Partouneaux's 12th Division and captured 8,000 of its soldiers. On 28 November, the Russians attacked Napoleon's army on both sides of the river. Oudinot was wounded and replaced by Michel Ney, and, while General Jean-Pierre Doumerc's cuirassiers charged and halted Chaplits' attack, Wittgenstein's force attacked Victor's IX Corps and pushed the French into the river. Cossacks and Wittgenstein's troops rounded up French stragglers and took them as prisoners. Meanwhile, Napoleon and his Grande Armee destroyed their bridges and withdrew to Vilna, successfully escaping encirclement by the Russians. The II and IX Corps lost more than half of their effective strength while defending the bridgehead, and around 30,000 Frenchmen became casualties during the battle or because of exposure and starvation in Russian captivity.
Napoleon's defeat at Berezina made it possible for Austria and Prussia to breach their alliances with France and ally with Russia, which launched an offensive against Poland and Germany in 1813.